US musicians participate in the Berklee Jazz Festival

Friday,February17,201711:29AM

The King Jazz Studio Orchestra and the King Jazz Combo participated in the Berklee Jazz Festival, on Feb. 10-12. It was the third consecutive year that King had participated. Both groups performed very well. The Jazz Studio Orchestra placed 9th out of 16 in their division.

The Jazz Studio Orchestra at King is a performance ensemble modeled after a film studio orchestra and the old big band orchestras; it is comprised of a traditional jazz ensemble:(saxophones, trombones, trumpets, bass, piano, guitar, drum-set) with the inclusion of strings (violin, viola, cello, bass) and woodwinds (flute, oboe, and bassoon). The studio orchestra performs a wide variety of musical styles such as jazz, Broadway, film music, patriotic, and rock. In addition to competing in the Berklee Jazz Festival, the orchestra has multiple performances around the King Community.

Samuel Nadler '19, who plays the saxophone, comments: "My favorite part of the festival was walking into the warehouse where all of the schools store their equipment. Seeing all of the talent in the room was very cool. The band prepared by being focused every time we rehearsed. The Berklee Jazz Festival is a really amazing thing for us to be able to participate in and anybody who plays an instrument should play with us next year. It is a great event."

Luke Koppenheffer '18, who plays the trumpet, adds: "My favorite part of the festival was definitely being able to see all of the other bands perform. To prepare for the event, there were a lot of after school practice sessions for the combo, and even some during school ones to accommodate for everyone's schedule. Some advice I would give to younger students would be to not let the skill gap between other bands and ours demoralize you, but rather use it as means of motivation to better yourself so that you can reach that point on your respective instrument."